Dulce et Amarum
by Leanan Sidehe
Summary: Emma has had some rough times in her life. There is one life event that effects her the most, she ends up writing her feelings down and someone finds it... rated m for later chapters


**I don't own Once Upon a Time or the characters, but I so wish we did! I promise I have a big things planned for this story. This is my first time posting, so please be nice but also honest.**

The bitter cold bruised Emma's skin; every nerve in her tall, slender, sturdy body went numb. To be fair, feeling numb was just what the girl had in mind. It was the middle of January and she was wearing a white tank top, jeans, and an old pair of worn-out boots. The girl's blonde hair was thrown on the top of her head into a messy bun. The blonde craved the wind's harshness on her bare skin. She was on her way to meet her friend at the local diner.

The moment she took her first feeble steps into the seemingly empty diner, sparsely populated with the usual patrons she felt a rush of warmth melt the numb feeling that had been residing in and on her skin. She glanced around, seeing the old wallpapers starting to fade in color, the seats leather starting to wear down. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled her lungs. Without hesitation Emma's green eyes were drawn to her favorite spot; the third booth back from the door. The underdressed blonde stood in the middle of the rustic diner, her eyes never wavering from that spot like something was holding her there. A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, which these days was an accomplishment. A familiar voice threw Emma out of the trance she was in.

"Hey Emma, over here!" Ruby hollered from behind the counter, waving her hand back and forth. Ruby scanned Emma. A look of concern flashed across her face as she took in the blondes' state. Emma noticed the worrisome look on her friend's face, but chose to ignore it.

"Hey." Emma grunted as she pulled herself up onto the bar stool.

Ruby raised an eyebrow; placed a cup of hot chocolate and a bear claw in front of her. As if on autopilot Emma's hand shot out towards the flaky diabetes and almost knocked the hot chocolate over. It wasn't until then that the blonde noticed the warm ceramic mug with the perfect amount of whipped cream strategically placed on top, topped off with cinnamon. Emma brought her forest green eyes up to meet Ruby's. Ruby knew how much the blonde liked her sweets when she was having a bad day, or in this case a bad three months. With as much energy as she could muster up, Emma smiled.

"Hey Rubes, so what was so important that you dragged me away from my very busy day filled with laying around watching Netflix with my boyfriend?"

"What?!" Ruby's eyes widen. "Who is it? I mean, do I know him?

"Yes, actually I believe you do. His name if you must know is Mint… you may know his friends, Ben and Jerry." She hid her growing smirk behind the mug.

Ruby gave her a puzzled look as she wiped down the spot in front of her, muttering to herself, "Mint… Ben… Jerry?"

Emma snickered.

"Ice cream!" Ruby balled up the rag and threw it at Emma.

"Emma, seriously?!"

"Hey watch it there Sandy Koufax, you almost ruined this chocolatey goodness. So what did you want to tell me?"

"It can wait, I wouldn't want to be the one to ruin your hot plans with…Mint, was it?" Ruby said, shaking her head at her friend who still hadn't stopped laughing. "Okay Emma, you have to promise to listen to everything before you respond." At this, Emma raised her brows." Emma, please."

"Yeah. Okay I promise." The blonde put down her hot chocolate and gave Ruby her full attention.

"You remember that binder you used to carry around with you everywhere for months after um, well… You know…"

"Yeah I do know." Emma was no longer looking at Ruby. Instead the blonde was now picking at and tearing apart the bear claw with the precision of a nerdy kid in science class during frog dissections.

"What of it? I told you I lost it a while back. Also I did not carry it around everywhere."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Please Emma, you practically slept with it. Seriously though, if it wasn't physically on your person, it sat in the passenger side of your faithful sidekick Bumblebee, as you like to call her."

Emma narrowed her eyes and threw a freshly mutilated bear claw sitting on the plate.

"Since you apparently kept better tabs on my binder than I did, maybe you can tell me what happened to it."

Although the blonde meant it as a joke, she couldn't help noticing the guilty look plastered across the waitress face, which added a few years to her.

"Ruby." Emma whispered slowly. Emma's stomach dropped, she suddenly felt nauseous. Ruby look down, grabbed the towel and began wiping the spot in front of her.

"You remember the Storybrooke Gazette, right?" Ruby started up again. Emma could not focus on anything she said distracted by all the senseless "cleaning"

"Ruby! Just stop. It's clean!" Emma hissed. "Now tell me what happened to my binder."

"Well..." Ruby leaned over the counter, flipped her long brown hair behind her shoulders and took a deep breath. "A few months ago the Storybrooke Gazette had writing competition going on-"

"Yeah, the one you kept telling me I should enter in some of my pi-"Emma paused, in that moment Ruby could have sworn the blonde's forest green eyes had somehow grown darker. "What the Hell, Ruby?! Why?" Emma shook her head in confusion, or in disbelief. "What did you do?"

Emma was no longer sitting. Somehow the blonde was now standing just inches away from Ruby's face. Ruby knew she was in deep shit this time. The brunette looked around for the quickest escape route, hoping and praying that someone needed their coffee refilled. Hell, she would give anything for Granny to yell at her to get back to work right about now… nothing.

" _Seriously?! Any other time you would be at my throat about not doing my job, but now as I am getting ready to be ripped apart probably worse than that bear claw you want to act like the freaking sea witch stole your voice, fucking perfect!"_ thought Ruby.

She was now backed against the counter and Emma was blocking her only exit. Accepting defeat, the brunette told Emma exactly what she had done.

"Like I was saying, you left your binder here and I found it while was doing my late night cleaning. Anyway, you know how nosey I am. I'm not the first person people go to for gossip for no reason, you know. "

Emma narrowed her eyes. Ruby received that look often enough to know the blonde was not in the mood to be messed with, so she nodded and continued with her story.

"I only meant to flip through it, but it just flowed so perfectly like a story." Ruby caught Emma rolling her eyes. "Well it did! Before I knew it I was sitting on the floor behind the bar just sucked in. Emma it was kind of like a train wreck you just can't bear to look away from, it was that good. It just so happened to be the same day I told you about the writing contest. I couldn't stop thinking about how perfect the story could have been I-"

"Okay yes, I know you're nosey and can't mind your own business to save your life, and everything I wrote, yes, you live through it with me. If you read it fine; however, that gave you no right to decide whether or not the goddamn town got to read my, what did you call it? train wreck. " Emma paused and gave Ruby quizzical look. "Wait... if it was in the paper I would have seen it."

Ruby's gaze left Emma's and landed on her perfectly manicured hands, no longer able to stand the angry disapproving look of her friend. The brunette began picking at her nails as Emma staggered back, creating enough space between them that Ruby could move if she wanted to now. When Emma spoke next her voice was low, Ruby almost had to strain to hear it.

"If it was not in the paper, then where is it?"

Without looking up Ruby said, "I did give it to the paper, but Belle read it-"

"Belle? Why did Belle read it?" The blonde cut in.

"Oh I thought you knew. Belle French was made editor of the Storybrooke Gazette not too long ago. She read it and thought it was fantastic! Way too good for the likes of the paper, so we sent it off to one of her friends in Boston who is a big-shot editor at some publishing company up there, to see if it could be something. It turns out it had so much potential that the lady came back with a book proposal! So, surprise! You are going to be the next JK Rowling or Ruth Ware."

It was almost too much, the blonde didn't really know what to say. So rather than speak, she yelled the first thing that came to her head.

"WHAT THE HELL, RUBY?! That was never meant to be read by anyone EVER and now the whole world gets to read about my stupidity and darkest secrets!"

Ruby finally spoke, "Emma, no one will actually know you wrote it."

"How is that?" Emma blurted out in disbelief.

The bell above the door chimed alerting every one of the new patron. And she seemed to have everyone's attention as she approached the two quarreling women who aren't even aware of the new addition among them.

"Well it's nice to see you haven't quite lost your fiery attitude, Emma."

Emma almost broke her neck turning at the sound of the voice behind her. The first thing Emma clocked was the $200 suit, before she saw who was wearing it.

"Katherine. Nice to see you too. You haven't changed much at all. What brings you back to this no good, too small town?"

Kathrine rolled her eyes and tossed her red leather coach briefcase on top of the bar.

"Actually I am hear for you. You should really be thanking Ruby for sticking her noise where it doesn't belong. It turns out that it was quite good, Emma. Who knew Emma 'can't get right' Swan could write what could potentially be a bestseller. "

Emma stood there frozen, as if she had just seen a ghost:

"Wait. No way. You mean you are the big shot editor Ruby and Belle sent my writing to!?"

"Yep." Katherine cooed with an all knowing smile while she rummaged through her briefcase, which in return made Emma extremely uneasy.

Emma turned to face Ruby, all the blood drained from her face.

"Katherine! Ruby, out of all the people you could have sent my whole life story you sent it to Katherine?! Shit. If Katherine knows…then that means… she has read it too…"

At this point the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Ruby grabbed Emma a stool to sit on before she passed out. Katherine took it upon herself to break the tension.

"As much fun as it is to watch you freak out… you can relax. She has no idea and she doesn't have to know because like Ruby said, Emma Swan didn't write it… McKenzie Taylor did. Plus she never reads anything my publishing company puts out anyway."

"Emma this is your chance to get out! Who cares what that bitch thinks? She obviously doesn't care about you. Like Katherine said, she will never know about it anyway. Ems, you let her determine so much of your life already do it for yourself

Sign the contract." Pleaded Ruby.

"Okay. If you both really think this is a good idea I will do it. What could possibly go wrong, right?"

 **Thank you guys for reading! I hope you all enjoyed it. If you think this has any potential please review and let me know.**


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